Fueled by the long ball, the Red Sox' big turnaround continued Sunday as they erupted for six homers to bash the Baltimore Orioles, 14-9, for their sixth straight victory.
J.D. Martinez belted three homers and Rafael Devers added to of his own as the Sox pounded out 17 hits, including half for extra-bases. The big game for Martinez happened hours after he was reinstated from the COVID-19 related IL list. The top five hitters in the Red Sox lineup each had multi-hit games.
Nick Pivetta picked up his first win of the season and became the first Red Sox starter this season to reach 100 pitches in a start.
The Sox have played three series thus far and have been swept in one and swept the other two.
WHO: Red Sox (5-3) vs. Baltimore Orioles (4-4)
WHEN: 1:05 p.m.
WHERE: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
SERIES TO DATE: Red Sox 2-0
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: Orioles 3-2
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nick Pivetta (1-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Jorge Lopez (0-1, 7.71)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Verdugo RF
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Vazquez C
Gonzalez 2B
Dalbec 1B
Cordero LF
ORIOLES
Mullins CF
Mancini 1B
Santander RF
Mountcastle DH
Stewart LF
Franco 3B
Ruiz 2B
Severino C
Galvis SS
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
T8: Devers goes deep again, once more to right-center, giving him two homers and five RBI. Six homers on the day for the Sox.
T8: Have a day, why don't you, J.D. Martinez? Booming solo homer to straightaway center on an 0-and-2 pitch, giving him a three-homer, four RBI game. Wow.
B7: Fine doubled.
B7: Austin Brice deserves a massive fine in Kangaroo Court for walking the first guy he faced, the No. 9 hitter, with a six-run lead.
B6: Pivetta makes one of his rare mistakes of the afternoon, hanging a breaking ball to Maikel Franco, who sends a pea into the left field seats for a three-run homer.
T6: From the (one-day) IL to a three-hit, two-homer, three RBI game for Martinez.
T5: Safe to say that Rafael Devers is locked in? Third homer in as many games here as he crushes a hanging splitter up in the zone for a three-run homer and the rout is on, 8-1.
T5: Martinez continues to be a machine, lining the first pitch to left and scoring Hernandez from third. That's two RBI for Martinez today.
B3: On a wild pitch, Pivetta races to the plate and takes a flip from Christian Vazquez, blocks the plate and tags oncoming runner from third, Freddy Galvis. Replay indicated that Galvis might have have gotten his cleat on the plate before being tagged higher up on the leg, but upon review, call stands and the Sox get out of a mess.
B3: Nick Pivetta catches a big break on the ninth pitch of a tough at-bat against Anthony Santander, with home plate umpire Andy Fletcher rings up Santander on a pitch a couple of inches inside.
T3: J.D. Martinez, back from a one-day IL stay because of COVID protocols, follows up with an opposite field homer of his own, belting a curve to right. He now has at least one extra-base hits in all eight of the games he's played.
T3: Alex Verdugo goes the other way for a shot to left field, a three-run homer. Verdugo stayed on a fastball tailing away from him and drove it into the seats.
T3: Franchy Cordero, who can really move for a big guy, beats out an infield chopper with the call overturned on replay.
B2: Fabulous play by Rafael Devers, who backhands a high line drive then settles in and throws across the infield to double up D.J. Stewart at first base. Devers has turned in superb plays in each of the last two games.
PRE-GAME STATS: The Red Sox begin the day in sole possession of first place in the AL East for the first time since the end of the 2018 season...Of the Red Sox' five wins, four have been of the comeback variety...The Sox have already won two games in which they were trailing going into the ninth inning; in all of 2020, that happened just once...In losing their first three games, then winning their next five, the Red Sox have done something for the first time as a franchise since 1945...A win today would make the Sox the first team to open with at least three losses followed by six wins since the 2005 New York Mets...Red Sox starting pitchers have gone at least five innings and allowed three earned runs or fewer in seven of the first eight games, including each of the last five...In four appearances to date, Matt Barnes has faced 16 batters and retired 15 of them, 11 by strikeout....He's also fanned seven of the last eight hitters he's faced...Since the start of the 2018 season, among pitchers with 150 innings or more, Barnes leads all relievers with a strikeout rate of 14.49 per nine innings and a strikeout rate of 37.1 percent...The Red Sox' bullpen ranks fourth in the league in ERA (2.95) and has allowed just three earned runs in the last 19.2 innings...Boston relievers have faced 157 hitters and pitched 36.2 innings and have yet to give up a homer this season...After scoring just five runs combined over their first three games, the Sox have scored at least six runs in every game over the last five...Rafael Devers will play his 400th career game today, and has 76 homers. The only other players in franchise history to play 400 games and hit at least 75 homers are Ted Williams, Nomar Garciaparra and Tony Conigliaro...Against Nick Pivetta lifetime, Freddy Galvis is 2-for-3 while Rio Ruiz is 0-for-5...Meanwhile, Devers is 2-for-3 with both hits being homers against Jorge Lopez.
NEWS AND NOTES:
- An hour before gametime, the Red Sox reinstated J.D. Martinez from the COVID-19 related Injured List and optioned Michael Chavis to the taxi squad. Martinez had been placed on the IL Saturday night when he experienced cold symptoms, triggering COVID-19 protocols. Martinez first needed to receive several negative tests and get clearance from the MLB Joint Committee on Health and Safety.
- Alex Cora is hopeful that the majority of players and staff members will elect to get the vaccine, which will provide for a safer environment for the traveling party and also lead to some relaxation of protocols. "The way it's going, I do believe we will,'' he said. "But you never know -- people might change their minds.'' Cora got his first shot in Fort Myers, as did a few members of the coaching staff, but no players have been vaccinated. "We're working on that, we're talking about it,'' he said. "Hopefully, by the time we get home (from the current trip) we can get the ball rolling and we can some of them vaccinated.'' The Red Sox plan to have their medical staff make a presentation to the players about the benefits of the vaccine. "If we want it to be as normal as possible, it's there (if at least 85 percent get vaccinated). You saw the rules, you saw what it's all about. I know they've been talking about it, but we'll make a formal presentation and they'll decide.'' Cora said he'll "take my manager's hat away,'' and tell players the benefits of the vaccine.
- The Sox have carefully monitored pitch counts of their starters in the first 10 days of the season. No single starter has thrown more than 92 pitches in a single game and Cora said that's by design. "We don't have too many off days until (later this month),'' said Cora. "We have to grind, but we have to be careful, too, not to overuse the bullpen. There have been some games in which we were up 7-0 and we ended up using (Adam) Ottavino and that's not good either. We'll take care of (the starters) for a little bit. Obviously, it's not perfect. But we've done this before. What we sacrifice now is going to pay off later on.'' Cora loosely identified the first week of May as a time when starters will be permitted to go deeper. "I'm very pleased with the way they've bene throwing the ball, very pleased with the effort and the chances they've been given us to win games,'' Cora said. "We might need a few longer ones this week because of where we're at, schedule-wise.''